Statsticks in Path of Exile never were a common thing up to the release of 3.1. With 3.1 came the War for the Atlas, which brought a set of new Shaper and Elder mods with it. Statsticks have been brought to the forefront of the meta now with physical skills such as Blade Flurry and Ethereal Knives equipping them in the offhand to use. In this article, we will go through what statsticks do and why they are so powerful.

So what is a statstick? A statstick is a weapon equipped in the offhand that generally provides % damage boosts. This comes at the cost of regular weapon mods such as local damage and attack speed, or in a caster’s case, spell critical strike chance and so on. For this reason, statsticks are equipped in the offhand while a normal weapon is in the main hand. Additionally, dual-wielding grants 10% more attack speed, 15% additional block chance, and 20% more attack physical damage while dual wielding. These boosts themselves are quite incredible but its only added upon by the statstick.

The first statsticks were unique items, for there were no Elder or Shaper mods in that time. The first statstick was the Soul Taker. Back before its nerf, it had decent damage (enough to not be considered a statstick) but the real reason people used it was the unique modifier, Insufficient mana doesn’t prevent your melee attacks. This allowed people to completely reserve their mana and in the age of Reduced Mana, that was quite possible.Reduced Mana was like Enlighten but it leveled normally and level 20 gave an insane 66% mana multiplier.

The next big statstick was Death’s Hand. This weapon was used to gain Unholy Might in many reave builds and it was popularized by ZiggyD’s Southpaw Reaver. Unholy Might adds 30% chaos damage as physical damage which is a huge buff since most mobs do not have chaos resistances. Death’s Hand also grants power charge on stun which is free power charge generation on many builds.

Today, we are in a world of rare statsticks. With 3.1 we have earned a host of mods allowing us to gain extra fire, lightning, and chaos damage from shaped sceptres. It’s all pretty straight-forward. You buy it and it doubles your damage. Simple, right? However, there is a catch that makes it even more incredible than it already is. The additional chaos damage “double dips” so to speak, if you are converting all your physical damage to cold, then fire, then lightning, the 20% additional chaos damage mod in the picture above turns into a 60% because you will have converted three times! Added with the other modifiers, that is 140% Additional damage! There are many crazy builds out there and many will come out soon!

Personally, I am excited to see where GGG takes statsticks. Will the take them even farther or nerf them to ES? Either way, keep playing PoE and have fun!

Uber Lab farming has been a staple of endgame since it was released alongside the Prophecy Leagues. The enchantments can be worth up to several exalts and its a quick and easy way for players of every skill level to make currency. I personally love the Labyrinth because it rewards skill greatly but at the same time allows newer players to get a feel for the game. Today I have found a few of the best builds for Uber Lab farming. These two in particular are very popular and have been for quite a while.

Pure Physical Warchief Totems

Warchief totems have always been some of my favorite builds (as evidently shown here) and are very powerful as well. However, their greatest strength comes at their cost-effectiveness and ease to use. I would suggest this build to newer players or players who don’t have a lot of currency to spare. This build requires no uniques and its biggest strength its pure physical damage with the new skill gem Brutality. This makes it very cheap to play because you don’t have to scale elemental damage with WED on jewelry and other pieces of gear.

Example Build – https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1960538

Blade Vortex Pathfinder

This Pathfinder build was meticulously designed for Uber Lab farming. With over 600% movement speed, this build is one of the fastest in the game and it abuses Queen of the Forest to hit 90%+ evasion and high move speed. It utilizes a crit variant of physical blade vortex which is buffed up by auras such as Hatred. This build is somewhat difficult to gear compared to Warchief Totems so I would only suggest it if you have a decent amount of currency. However, it does run much faster than Warchief Totems when played properly due to high move speed so the investment turns out to be well worth it. Pathfinders are always top on the Uber Lab leaderboards.

Path of Exile is now officially live on Xbox One! With the release, GGG is releasing the First Blood Starter Pack exclusive to Xbox One. The Xbox One game will be running alongside the official PC game with a few differences. The Harbinger Leagues for Xbox One launched today. You can read more about the official launch here and here.

Hello guys! This is my guide to the top five best builds for 3.0 Fall of Oriath and Harbinger League. I will try to find builds to put here that are cheap, efficient, easy and most importantly, enjoyable. Personally, I’d play Ancestral Warchief in softcore and Essence Drain/Contagion in hardcore.

Dual Flameblast Totems

Somehow, this always gets into the top five on my lists. Contrary to popular belief, Flameblast Totems have gained a small buff due to buffs intended for other mechanics that overlap with this skill. Its been buffed so much that you can achieve 1 million DPS without mirrored gear. However, we will no longer be playing ES or hybrid. We will be going Mind over Matter due to the new changes. We will be utilizing the innate benefits of totems such as no reflect and the increased defensive capabilities with Mind over Matter to stack on more damage than ever before. Additionally, this is a very easy build to play for newer players as it requires less micro and awareness than standard spell-casters or attack builds where you are right in the action. Both Flameblast and Totems generally scale up well without much investment and this will help you farm those exalts for later on in the league!

Essence Drain/Contagion

This build has worked miracles for me in the past. I played a non-Mind over Matter version in 2.6 as a second league-starter and I enjoyed it thoroughly. There is no feeling like evaporating a cluster of mobs with a purple ball of pure chaos. There have been some nerfs to damage over time and I can’t lie about that. However, the power creep is enough to make up for these nerfs and Mind over Matter will let us take more damage than before. The reason this build works so great is because Damage over Time and Chaos Damage scales very well without currency. This build will be an excellent Shaper/Uber Atziri farmer if you’re into that.

Dual Bladefall Totems

Another fantastic build that I’ve played first hand, this is another one of those lesser known builds that can easily farm Uber Atziri at day three or four. Due to the MoM buffs, this build will probably be taking MoM in 3.0 which will allow it to gain more damage and survivability. It also has the innate benefits of totems and additionally, it has an overlooked advantage that no other build on this list has. It deals physical damage. That means, unlike any of the other builds here, this build does not have to worry about elemental or chaos resistances at all and it can just straightaway deal large sums of damage.

Ancestral Warchief

This is a build that has been very popular for the past few leagues and for good reason. It combines melee and totems which are both easy ways to scale damage on a budget. Throw some Facebreakers in there and you’ve got something powerful. This is one of the best melee marauder builds out there right now, and even though its been hit by the critical strike multiplier nerfs, it is still a great option in 3.0. This build also scales very well with currency to become a boss farmer build with incomparable tanking ability. This particular build truly shows that melee is still powerful when used correctly.

Kinetic Blast Wander

This is probably the most hipster build on the list and definitely not a classic option. However, its just as powerful as every other build on this list and probably scales better than any other ones due to the simple fact that it’s a wander. This elemental damage build utilizes Pathfinder to exponentially increase its DPS. I realize that flasks have been nerfed in effectiveness but they are still very potent when used correctly. Additionally, they will probably be cheaper due to people believing that they’re not worth buying. Kinetic Blast is the best pack-clearing skill in the game right now and with Barrage it does wonders against bosses as well. Wander has been a very powerful option since 1.1 and even though it has gone through many iterations, it will probably stay that way for the foreseeable future.

Recently there has been a lot of speculation about GGG nerfing unique flasks in 3.0. Well now unique flask nerfs are pretty much confirmed. Recent data-mining has shown that almost all of the unique flasks, particularly ones popular in the meta, are receiving large balance changes. We will be discussing the balance changes in depth below and I will be giving my thoughts on what they may entail for the builds that use them. Lastly, I would like to note that all of these changes besides Vinktars perhaps, will be going legacy because GGG never does global nerfs on % ranges. Last of all, don’t take everything here as 100% true. These are my speculations and they are probably correct, but do not invest in legacy items completely based on what I am saying. I am not responsible for any losses you may have.

The Atziri’s Promise nerf looks small but its quite insane for physical damage builds. This flask’s effect has been reduced by around ~22% for physical damage builds and it will stay about the same for elemental builds. One thing to note is that the elemental damage ranges have been increased. I don’t believe the legacy flask prices will change because there is an absolutely enormous amount of them on the market. There are tens if not hundreds of thousands of them that have dropped since 1.1 and the introduction of Atziri with the Sacrifice of the Vaal expansion.

This is another nerf thats quite large. The charges used have stayed the same but the area of effect has been changed. In the current (2.4) dying sun, there is a flat 30% increased area of effect. Now its down to a range of 15-25%. Assuming the median value, this is a 50% nerf on the Area of Effect that dying sun provides down from 30% to 20%. The markets have already started to show a difference in the price of well-rolled Dying Suns. I am not sure its worth buying them for a short term investment anymore, but maybe long term.

This is one of the lesser known flasks. Its current version only has 50% reduced duration but the downside of it is that it doesn’t remove freeze, chill, curses, or stuns. This version will. I am not sure if this is a buff or a nerf. The 10% reduced duration nerf will only be removing .3 seconds on the current version so it may actually be a buff designed to allow characters to remove ailments more easily. I would not suggest investing in this flask and expecting legacy prices to rise as the new version might be better.

The next flask on our list is Lion’s Roar! The current iteration has 30-35% more melee physical damage so the nerf is around 31% less damage provided by the flask by taking averages. This buff is actually huge because it is not the standard % increased damage, but it is % more damage. What this means is better explained in this post. However, this flask has a big downside that most people look past while calling it overpowered. It adds knockback. This is a terrible affix for melee builds as you have to be close to the enemy. However, a great combination effect can be achieved with the Empire’s Grasp unique gloves which reverse knockback to create a whirlwind effect. I would suggest buying a few of these flasks because they are underrated in the current meta and hopefully melee will be improved in the future.

This is another nerf on a meta flask. Although we already have a legacy variant with 30% extra cold damage, GGG is taking Taste of Hate nerfs even further. This variant has about 30% reduced damage provided by the flask compared to the current iteration. The physical to cold conversion is staying the same as well as everything else on the flask. Even though this flask is a meta flask because of the way in which it boosts physical damage, it might not be a good investment since people looking for legacy items will probably go for the original 30% conversion Taste of Hate.

This nerf is a very controversial one. Many people do not believe that this is even occurring but I believe that it is. What people are missing is that this Vinktar has a huge damage nerf and a huge defensive nerf. In general, shock increases damage taken by 50%. If you shock other monsters that’s a 50% moremultiplier that stacks on top of everything else besides the Vulnerability aura. That means if you are doing 100,000 damage you will be doing 150,000 with this flask. Now they have changed shock just for this flask so it does 110,000 damage down from 150,000. That is obviously a pretty big damage nerf at 80%. All the other values stay the same except for one. Gain Life and Mana from Leech instantly during Flask Effect. They are bringing back the key line of the original Legacy Vinktar. This will make Vinktar the defensive powerhouse it was before because it provides something even Vaal Pact cannot: instant mana leech. This change moves in the trend that all of the other changes GGG is making. They are trying to nerf the clear speed meta and make defense more important. This flask visualizes that change perfectly as it trades damage from the current iteration for extra survivability from the instant leech. I do notbelieve that this flask is going to go legacy due to the fact that it is a flat modifier change. It is not a change to % ranges and I do not believe that it is going legacy.

Wise Oak is another one of the bigger nerfs. Down from 20% penetration, this flask is being nerfed by ~38% penetration. In its current state it is very overpowered if you can line up all 3 of your resistances so you gain both the defensive and offensive benefits. I believe the nerf was completely justified as it will still be popular after the nerf. The price of these flasks has already spiked by ~800% in Legacy League.

The final flask is one that is not quite as popular but still very powerful. The current witchfire brew provides 50-70% increased damage but it has 50% increased charges used halving the amount of times this flask can be used. This can be considered a nerf or a buff depending which way you look it because even though this flask provides ~46% less damage than before, it can be kept up longer for damage over time builds. I am not sure which way this nerf/buff will go so I would not buy into these flasks yet unless you have nothing else to do with your currency.

Overall I believe that the unique flask nerfs are good for the game as they weaken the clear speed meta and prioritize more defense. Comment below on what you think of the 3.0 changes!

The Harbinger Challenge Leagues have finally been announced! They will be released on Friday August 4th, (for most of us) and will be released alongside the Path of Exile 3.0 expansion known as Fall of Oriath. I would suggest you read the official post on the Harbinger challenge leagues before continuing with this article.

To sum the official post up, we know that the Harbinger leagues contain unknown entities who raise and summon monsters to fight at their sides. They drop shards for both new and existing currency types, and you can venture into the origin of harbingers to gain great rewards. Lets break this down. I will be noting the important points of the article and expanding on it.

“These Harbingers can create and command monsters from the area, and empower them with their own abilities.” – Harbingers will not only be able to summon monsters from the zone they are in, but they will be able to cast their own spells as well. I believe that the word “empower” is very specific and monsters summoned by the harbingers may have increased stats compared to regular zone monsters. Something like beyond monsters seems accurate.

“Harbingers can’t be attacked directly, but are harmed when their minions are destroyed.” – This is a line that many people missed. You cannot kill a Harbinger by one-shotting him with your clear speed meta build. You have to kill him by killing the monsters he summons. I believe that these monsters will not all appear at once like a normal strongbox but more in a stream where they will be continuously cast till the Harbinger dies. This is an attempt to nerf the clear speed meta. I just hope killing Harbingers will be worth it.

“Harbingers bear shards of currency types that are already familiar to you. Upon death, they also surrender the shards of currency items that have never been seen before.” – This reveal is incredible. Its telling us that not only will we have shards for existing currencies such as exalted orbs and mirrors, but we will have new currencies implemented into the game! I am not sure if these new currencies will only be attainable through shards. Maybe the will drop from Harbingers or regular monsters as well. I believe this is GGG’s way of trying to make Harbingers enticing enough to stop clearing maps in sub-30 seconds and go for some loot. The two new orbs we have seen so far are the Orb of Horizons which turns a map into a different one of the same tier, and the Harbinger’s Orb, which will upgrade a map to one of a higher tier. I am not sure how this upgrade will work. If it will upgrade to any tier or only specific tiers like 1, 3, or 5 tiers up. Additionally, I am curious if these two new orbs will reroll maps into ones discovered on your Atlas or undiscovered ones as well. Either way, these new orbs are going to completely shake up the current Atlas strategies.

“If you’re able to find the origin of the Harbingers and halt their arrival, you’ll find pieces of powerful unique items. Collect all of the pieces of these items and arrange them in your inventory to forge one in its entirety. These powerful unique items allow you to command your own Harbinger that can empower you in combat.” – The biggest reveal of them all. GGG is letting us know that we will have the ability to find the origin of Harbingers and stop them. I believe this will function like the much-loved Breachlords did, where we will have engame map bosses of differing elements and difficulties. My guess is that each of them will drop different unique pieces that allow you to summon harbingers of their element. The shield in the post allows you to summon a “Harbinger of Focus”. That seems to sound like it will add dexterity stats (which goes with cold damage) such as accuracy and chance to crit.

Bonus Idea: “Their true nature remains a mystery to be solved.” – This seems like foreshadowing towards you working with and fighting alongside Harbingers. We know that there will be certain unique items that will let you summon harbingers that fight by your side. Does this have a connection to some lore as well? My prediction is that there is some unique race of bosses controlling the harbingers that will be discovered at their origin and defeating these bosses will drop the Harbinger unique items.

Please comment below if you liked this article! I am planning on doing a build guide article for 3.0 next so you can pick your best starter build!

FilterBlade is a new PoE web application released recently that allows you to easily create and customize your own filters in Path of Exile. It was brought to the community by Neversink, Haggis50, and Tobnac. This application is very useful for introducing beginners to the world to loot filters. Whats so special about FilterBlade is the simplicity of using the website. I will be providing a written and video tutorial below.

Written/Video Overview

From here, I’d suggest clicking on the website link and reading this while going along on your own. Alternatively, a video tutorial made by DeMiGodkingLoL will be posted at the end. By going to the FilterBlade website you will be presented with preset options on the main page. From here, it also gives you some basic information about the presets as well as some of the basic options that can be changed.

After picking your basic preset, you want to click on the “Customize” header. From here you will be able to change the look, text, color, outline, sound, and whatever else you can dream of for any group of items such as chromatic recipe items, leveling items, and crafting bases.

Next, you can click on the “Loot Simulator” header which allows you to test out your loot filter. If you don’t like something, don’t worry! There is a quick edit feature you can access directly from this page to clean up your filter.

After cleaning up your filter, you can click on the “Style Editor” header which allows you to make major color and sound changes for your entire filter. If you get bored of red you can switch to blue! Only use this for making major modifications.

The final header is the “Code” header. This is where you can copy the code of your finished filter and put it in your game files to have your very own, custom filter! Additionally, if you’re not quite done working on your filter, you can save it for next time with the header labeled “download”!

In the weeks since our last post, a lot as happened. The Beta was released and it was an immediate success after getting over the starting issues. There were a lovely couple weeks of races including the cornerstone 1-week race which not many people participated it. Updates to beta were released containing magnificent new skill gems and changes to pretty much everything already existing.

Pantheon System

Grinding Gear Games recently released an official video about the Pantheon system. It goes in-depth about how it works and what some of the options that you will encounter will be. This video is a great asset to newer players or players who haven’t played beta to look at before 3.0 launch!

Second of all, Grinding Gear Games has released their Week Two beta report. This is a great thing to look into even if you don’t play beta as it will give you information on some of the upcoming nerfs in specific. This beta report was focused on fixing the power of Damage over Time with ignites and chaos damage. Second of all, this report also focused on fixing some of the new skill gems that were released recently. These skill gems can be found here. This post also talked about the release of act 8 or part 2: act 3. Last but definitely not least, GGG announced a change in the release date of Fall of Oriath. It was previously expected to be released around mid July like 2.0 which was released on July 11. This one has been confirmed to be released on Late July/Early August which probably means early August. You can find the full post here.